Mathematics Ups the Ante
Krishnaswami Alladi discusses New Initiatives in Mathematics Department
Originally published in the February 1999 issue of CLASnotes.
The Department of Mathematics is making a concerted effort to gain increased visibility for its research. "We are going to have enormous activity in Spring 99," says department chair Krishna-swami Alladi.
For starters, the department is initiating two series of distinguished colloquia, one in pure and one in applied mathematics. The distinguished colloquium in pure mathematics is named after Paul Erdö s, one of the legends of twentieth century mathematics, who before his death in 1996 regularly visited UF each spring for two weeks. "He collaborated with many UF mathematicians and had a profound impact on our department," says Alladi. Rather than maintaining a permanent appointment, Erdö s criss-crossed the globe ceaselessly during his 50-year career to collaborate with other scientists, and he was especially known for visiting, encouraging and supporting aspiring mathematicians, including a young Alladi. The first Erdö s Colloquium will be given on March 15 by Professor Ronald Graham (of AT&T), a noted researcher and speaker and former president of the American Mathematical Society.
The distinguished colloquium in applied mathematics is named after Stan Ulam, an outstanding applied mathematician who served on the Los Alamos atom bomb project during World War II. Ulam was a graduate research professor in the UF math department between 1974 and 1984. "Creating these two distinguished colloquia is our way of remembering these great mathematicians and building on our legacy," Alladi explains. Both colloquia are to be given by persons of eminence on topics of relevance to many disciplines at UF. The first Ulam Colloquium, for example, given January 11 by Jim Keener of the University of Utah, was on "The Mathematics of Sudden Cardiac Death."
Other events in the spring include the American Mathematical Society's Southeastern Sectional Meeting, which will be held in Gainesville March 12-13. Over 250 attendees from the US and abroad will participate in 16 special sessions devoted to various areas of mathematics. UF Graduate Research Professor John Thompson and UF Professor Alexander Dranishnikov will give one-hour invited addresses at the meeting.
Later in the spring, the mathematics department will co-sponsor with the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research and the Institute for Fundamental Theory the visit of Professor Ingrid Daubechies of Princeton University, a world authority in the theory of wavelets. Professor Daubechies will give a popular lecture on wavelets on April 1 as part of the Women in Science program.
Starting next fall, the department will conduct two mini-conferences per year. These conferences will provide excellent opportunities for math faculty and graduate students to interact with experts from around the world and gain greater exposure for CLAS research.
Currently bringing attention to the department is The Ramanujan Journal, created in 1997 by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Edited by Alladi and co-edited by UF professor Frank Garvan, the journal devotes itself to the publication of papers in all areas of mathematics influenced by Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematical "genius" from India, who made startling discoveries in the early part of this century (see inset below). With the success of The Ramanujan Journal, Kluwer Academic Publishers has initiated a new book series called Developments in Mathematics, also with Alladi as editor. This book series will publish research monographs, contributed volumes, and refereed conference proceedings, including the proceedings of some of the mini-conferences at UF.
The mathematics department has an active applied mathematics program with several faculty members (Yunmei Chen, Gang Bao, William Hager, Bernard Mair, James Keesling, Tim Olson, Shari Moskow and David Wilson) involved in cross-disciplinary research. With President Lombardi's increased emphasis on the biological sciences, the department will be opening up a new faculty line in mathematical biology, expanding these cross-disciplinary efforts.
Ramanujan Story Spurns Interst in Math
Good Will Hunting has nothing on Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887-1920), the legendary Indian mathematician after whom the mathematics department's new journal is named. "What is special about Ramanujan," says Math chair Krishnaswami Alladi, "is that he discovered astonishing mathematical results which provided connections between certain areas of mathematics that previously people had not suspected. He was able to produce these results in succession without any formal mathematical training. He would get up in the middle of the night and write down formulas that came to him in dreams."
Convinced that Ramanujan was a genius, English mathematician G.H. Hardy persuaded him to come to England to study and work. During his five years there, Ramanujan's impressive research earned him Fellowship in the Royal Society and Trinity College. Illness—his "peculiar" diet and habits combined with what most think was tuberculosis—forced Ramanujan's return to India in 1919, where he died a year later at age 32. "The very mention of Ramanujan's name reminds us of the thrill of mathematical discovery," Alladi says. "Today, we realize that his work is more fundamental than Hardy had ever imagined.....His equations are now being used to compute pi (the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter) to a billion digits!"
Like Good Will Hunting, Ramanujan's story attracts a wide audience, and Alladi thinks the legendary mathematician's appeal can be instrumental in getting kids involved in math. Alladi's annual Ramanujan talks to high school students in India have already resulted in several students choosing mathematics as a career. In fact, one of these students won the first American Mathematical Society Award for undergraduate research. "A distaste or a love for math can be developed very early," claims Alladi. "There's no gray. So we could do a lot in terms of inspiring students by telling them about the remarkable Ramanujan, weaving the math into the story to get their interest going."
